CU, Utah to renew football series

Utes, which met Buffs 57 times from 1903 to 1962, accept Pac-10 bid

Two generations of Colorado Buffalo fans have grown up without recollection of their squad's longtime football series with the Utah Utes.

Joe Romig can remember. He maybe just wishes he remembered differently.

Romig -- an All-American offensive lineman and linebacker for the Buffs who went on to become a Rhodes Scholar -- starred for the Buffs' first Big 8 championship team in 1961. That team, which finished seventh in the nation after an Orange Bowl loss to LSU, suffered its only regular season defeat to Utah, a 21-12 setback in Boulder.

"They didn't have a very good team," Romig recalled Thursday. "But we didn't take them seriously and they beat us.

University of Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham attends a news conference to announce the acceptance of an invitation to join the PAC-10 at Rice Eccles Stadium.
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Mike Terry
)

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The Buffs and Utes officially saw their status as conference rivals reinstated on Thursday when Utah officials accepted an invitation to join the Pac-10, six days after CU did the same.

Utah's move from the Mountain West Conference renews a football series that saw the Buffs and Utes play 57 times from 1903-1962, with CU holding a 30-24-3 edge. The two schools played in the same conference from 1910-1948 and kept the series alive for several years after CU went to the Big Seven.

Romig, who went to Lakewood High School, said he didn't recall the Buffs having any designated rivals back then but believes it will be good for CU to start playing its neighbor to the west once again.

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"They've had some great teams in the last five years or so," said Romig, who lives in Boulder.The Utes` press conference Thursday to announce their move was a celebration similar to the one CU held at Folsom Field last week, with campus administrators gushing over the benefits of the new league.

Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott confirmed that Utah will begin play in the Pac-10 in the 2011-12 school year, one year earlier than planned for CU`s arrival.

CU athletic director Mike Bohn said Thursday that it remains to be seen whether Colorado will also join in 2011 instead of 2012, though it would seem to be in the best interest of both the Big 12 and Pac-10 to have CU move sooner. Nebraska has already made plans to jump to the Big Ten in 2011, which would leave the Big 12 with an odd number of schools that season if CU stayed.

"We`re hopeful to resolve that shortly so we can plan and (the conferences) can plan," Bohn said. "I think all parties are motivated to resolve that one way or another."

Scott reaffirmed his league`s belief in equal sharing of football television revenue, though he noted that Utah would "become a full member of the conference over a period of three years in regards to revenue sharing." Scott said Colorado, meanwhile, will start as a full member in regard to revenue sharing in 2012.

"But if they start earlier, we will have to discuss that," Scott said of the Buffs.

Scott said the addition of Utah ends the Pac-10`s expansion "for now." Several other league details remain to be finalized.

Sources told the Camera in recent days that CU had been assured of membership in a southern division of the league along with Arizona, Arizona State, USC, UCLA and Utah. But Scott said the issue of divisions was yet to be worked out, along with whether to form a Pac-10 Network, whether to hold a conference championship game and what to call the new 12-team league.

"There are a few conferences out there that have math problems right now," Scott said of league names. "We`re one of them."

No matter how league alignment shakes out, the Buffs are certain to be tied to the Utes as a travel partners and likely rivals. The Pac-10 already had five natural pairings among its current schools, and pairing CU and Utah keeps league scheduling for all sports as simple as possible.

Bohn said Utah`s proximity to Colorado would be a benefit for the Buffs and their fans but downplayed the notion that CU wouldn`t have had a natural rival without the Utes` addition to the league.

"Rivals don`t necessarily have to be neighbors," Bohn said.

Even before Thursday`s proceedings, Colorado and Utah were slated to renew their football series with a non-conference matchup on Sept. 22, 2012 -- the 50th anniversary of their last meeting.

That timeline will move up, however, if CU begins Pac-10 play in 2011.

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